Monday, August 31, 2015

Mada Masr

International human rights lawyer and representative of Mohamed Fahmy, Amal Clooney, gave an interview
late Saturday evening condemning the recent verdict in the Al Jazeera
case and called on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to pardon the accused
journalists.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists,
Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste to three years in prison
each on charges of spreading false information, along with three
students who did not work for Al Jazeera.

In an interview
she gave immediately following the trial, and in a later interview on
Saturday evening, Clooney called on Sisi to grant amnesty to the Al
Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste.

She
went on to say, “Unfortunately the prosecution’s position was absurd in
the retrial, just as absurd as it was in the original trial and yet we
saw another conviction and that’s deeply disappointing and something
that President Sisi can intervene to correct.”

She cited the fact
that the prosecution claimed the fact the journalists used the common
editing tool “Final Cut Pro” was evidence of the intent to undermine
national security as evidence of the verdict’s illegitimacy.

In
the first trial the court repeatedly screened video evidence that was
seen by many to be irrelevant, including pop songs and Al Jazeera
documentaries on farming.

Clooney pointed out that the other
evidence in the trial was that the journalists did not have permits for
three of their mobile devices. However, she explained that even if that
was true, the permits would be the responsibility of their employer, and
not having a license for them was at most an administrative offense.

Clooney
also stated that part of the reason why the trial was adjourned for so
long was so an expert committee could examine videos produced by Al
Jazeera to see if there had been any tampering. The committee concluded
that there had been no tampering in any of the videos, which according
to Clooney is key to the criminal charge.

She explained that
under Egyptian law, false news is legally defined by four elements: “The
news is false, the journalists knew of the falsity of the news, they
had the intent to broadcast and, in doing so, there was an intent to
undermine national security.”

Clooney also expressed her hope
that Sisi would pardon the journalists in the case, explaining that Sisi
“said when the judicial process is complete, he can’t interfere while
it’s ongoing, but when it’s complete, I can exercise my power to pardon
these journalists. He said in one interview at least that I’ve seen that
he would do that. What we’re very much hoping that the president will
now step in, in the way that he himself indicated he would. Today we saw
the end of the completion of the judicial process, so I think it’s time
for the presidency to put an end to this fiasco.”

The conviction of the Al Jazeera journalists sparked international outrage with international NGOs and governmental figures calling the sentence a violation of press freedom.

The guilty verdicts handed down against Al Jazeera journalists
Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed are an affront to justice that sound the
death knell for freedom of expression in Egypt, said Amnesty
International.

The Cairo criminal court ruled that the journalists broadcasted
“false news” and worked without registration, sentencing Mohamed Fahmy
to three years in prison and Baher Mohamed to three and a half years in
prison. Their co-defendant, Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, was
convicted in his absence and sentence to three years in prison.

“This is a farcical verdict which strikes at the heart of freedom of
expression in Egypt. The charges against Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and
Baher Mohamed were always baseless and politicized, and they should
never have been arrested and tried in the first place,” said Philip
Luther, Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty
International.

“The fact that two of these journalists are now facing time in jail
following two grossly unfair trials makes a mockery of justice in Egypt.
Today’s verdict must be overturned immediately – Mohamed Fahmy and
Baher Mohamed should be allowed to walk free without conditions. We
consider them to be prisoners of conscience, jailed solely for
exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

Amnesty International is also urging the Egyptian authorities to
facilitate Mohamed Fahmy’s request for deportation from Egypt to Canada.

Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed had been on bail since Egypt’s
highest court of appeal overturned their previous conviction on 1
January 2015. They were previously serving seven and 10-year prison
sentences respectively. Both men can now appeal the verdict once more
before the Court of Cassation.

The court also sentenced a group of Egyptians tried in their presence
on similar charges to three years, including students who said that
security forces had beaten them following their arrest last year. One
student told the court in a recent hearing that security forces had
tortured him after re-arresting him in early June.

The authorities should ensure a prompt, independent and impartial
investigation is conducted into the defendants’ allegations of torture
and other ill-treatment.

“Today’s ruling is sadly only the tip of the iceberg. The Egyptian
authorities are relentlessly cracking down on independent and critical
media across the country to silence dissent – including foreign
reporting. Dozens of journalists have been arrested over the past two
years, and over 20 are today in detention,” said Philip Luther.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the conviction of
three Al-Jazeera journalists in their retrial in Egypt today. A Cairo
court sentenced
Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Baher Mohamed, and Peter Greste to three years in
prison each for "aiding a terrorist organization," spreading false news,
and working without a license, according to news reports. Baher Mohamed was sentenced to an additional six months in jail for possession of a spent bullet casing.

"This trial has been carried
out with no evidence and has caused great pain to Mohamed Fadel Fahmy,
Baher Mohamed, Peter Greste, and their families," CPJ Middle East and
North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said. "We call on
Egyptian authorities to put an end to the abuse of the law which has
made Egypt one of the riskiest countries in the world to be a
journalist."

The three journalists had been convicted and sentenced to lengthy
prison terms in June 2014 for "conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood,"
which the government has banned. A retrial was ordered after a court
said the journalists were convicted despite a lack of evidence,
according to news reports. Greste, who is Australian, was retried in
absentia.

The high-profile case is emblematic of the threats faced by journalists in Egypt. According to CPJ research,
at least 22 journalists were behind bars for their reporting in Egypt
on August 12, 2015. Most of the journalists jailed in Egypt are accused
of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said in late 2014 that he would consider pardoning the three Al-Jazeera journalists.

The Egyptian press syndicate condemned on Sunday "halting the printing of newspapers and intervening in their contents."

The syndicate voiced concern over the "emergence of strong indicators on return of newspaper censorship."

The contents of newspapers have been omitted or amended by "unknown
oversight bodies", the syndicate's freedom committee said in a statement
posted on its website, citing the chief editors of newspapers.

This has been recurring over the past period inside state printing houses, the syndicate added.

Gamal Soltan, the chief editor of ِAlmesreyoon said on Twitter on
Saturday that "a sovereign authority decided to stop the printing" of
the paper in objection to an article by the chief editor with the title,
"Why does Sisi not stop playing the role of the Islamic thinker?"

The authority said the article must be changed.

The freedom committee at the press syndicate said it was observed
that all of the topics which were not printed are about top state
leadership, which indicates that there a direction to restrict press
freedom and freedom of expression.

The press syndicate said one newspaper was shredded after printing
and the printing of two newspapers was stalled on one day to change
specific topics.

Almesreyoon among other newspapers that have been subjected to this.

"The freedom committee calls for an end to these violations," the statement said.

Article 71 of the Egyptian Constitution said the censoring,
confiscation, suspension or shutdown of newspapers and media services is
prohibited. It adds that they me placed under limited censorship in
time of war.

Last week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ratified the
anti-terrorism law, which issues the green light for a series of new
penalties that can be applied onto people involved in terror-related
activities.

Rights groups have feared that the law expands the definition of terrorism and that it will restrict press freedom.

The Egyptian state maintains that does not limit press freedoms.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi denied earlier in August that any
journalists are detained in Egypt in cases related to publishing or
press freedom.

No Charges 2 Years After Security Forces Killed At Least 800 Protesters

Egyptian authorities have held no government official or member of
the security forces responsible for the mass killing of protesters in
Cairo’s Rab’a al-Adawiya Square two years ago. On August 14, 2013,
security forces killed at least 817 people and most likely more than
1,000 at a mass sit-in in what probably amounted to crimes against
humanity.

Given the Egyptian government’s refusal to properly investigate the
killings or provide any redress for the victims, the United Nations
Human Rights Council should establish an international commission of
inquiry into the brutal clearing of the Rab’a al-Adawiya sit-in
and other mass killings of protesters in July and August 2013. The
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should establish a
similar investigation.

“Washington and Europe have gone back to business with a government
that celebrates rather than investigates what may have been the worst
single-day killing of protesters in modern history,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. “The UN Human Rights Council, which has not yet addressed Egypt’s
dangerous and deteriorating human rights situation, is one of the few
remaining routes to accountability for this brutal massacre.”

The United States and Egypt’s European allies, rather than seriously
addressing the rank impunity of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s
government, contend that it is a national security priority to resume
their relationships with Egypt, including providing Egypt with military
aid and hardware.

The dispersal of the Rab’a al-Adawiya sit-in occurred on August 14,
2013, a little more than a month after the Egyptian military – under
then-Defense Minister al-Sisi – removed Mohamed Morsy, Egypt’s first
freely elected president and a former high-level official in the Muslim
Brotherhood.

Morsy’s ouster followed mass protests against his rule.
Afterward, Brotherhood supporters and others opposed to the military’s
actions held protests throughout Egypt. Security forces systematically
confronted the protests with deadly force. Between Morsy’s ouster on
July 3, 2013, and August 16, 2013, Human Rights Watch documented six instances when security forces unlawfully killed protesters, leaving at least 1,185 people dead.

The dispersal of the Rab’a al-Adawiya Square sit-in, where the crowd
reached 85,000 at its height, was the worst of these incidents. The
government announced its intention to clear the sit-in but did not
announce a date.

At first light on August 14, security forces using
armored personnel carriers and snipers fired on the crowd with live
ammunition shortly after playing a recorded announcement to clear the
square through loudspeakers. Police provided no safe exit and fired on
many who tried to escape.

Authorities had anticipated a high number of casualties; both
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy
said publicly after the dispersal that they had expected that more
protesters would have been killed.

A year later, al-Beblawy was quoted
as saying in an interview with al-Masry al-Youm, an independent
newspaper, that “all options were bad” for resolving the sit-in and
that anyone who “committed a mistake” should be sent to court.

Earlier, Egyptian military and police killed 61 protesters outside
the Republican Guard headquarters on July 8 and 95 protesters at Cairo’s
Manassa Memorial on July 27. On the day of the Rab’a dispersal, police
killed at least 87 protesters while clearing another Cairo sit-in at
al-Nahda Square. On August 16, police killed at least another 120 people
who continued to protest Morsy’s ouster in Ramsis Square in downtown
Cairo.

The widespread and systematic nature of these killings, and the
evidence Human Rights Watch collected, suggests that the killings were
part of a policy to use lethal force against largely unarmed protesters,
making them probable crimes against humanity.

In December 2013, the Egyptian government established the June 30
Fact-Finding Committee, named after the date on which protests against
the Morsy government began, to look into the killings and the events
that precipitated and followed them. The government released an
executive summary of the committee’s findings on November 26, 2014, that
did not recommend charges against any government official or member of
the security forces.

The government has not released the full report and has not signaled
any intention to do so. The Prosecutor General’s office, which has the
prerogative and responsibility to open criminal investigations, has not
announced any charges.

On July 16, al-Sisi’s cabinet approved renaming
Rab’a square after Hisham Barakat, the prosecutor general who gave legal
approval to the 2013 dispersal and who was assassinated in June.

The only prosecution to emerge from the mass killings of July and
August 2013 concerned the suffocation deaths of 37 protesters on August
18, 2013. The men, who had been arrested at the Rab’a dispersal, died
after a policeman fired a teargas canister inside the overcrowded prison
van where they were temporarily held.

On August 13, 2015, a court
reduced a 10-year sentence for a police lieutenant colonel involved in
the deaths to 5 years following a retrial. The case could still proceed
to Egypt’s highest appellate court. Three lower-ranking officers have
all received one-year suspended sentences.

Police arrested hundreds of protesters during the Rab’a sit-in
dispersal and held them in pretrial detention for nearly two years. On
August 12, prosecutors referred the case to trial, accusing the
protesters of a number of crimes, including blocking roads and harming
national unity. Al-Shorouk, an independent newspaper, reported that prosecutors have not disclosed the number of protesters being sent to trial, though lawyers believe that more than 400 are being held.

US officials have refrained from characterizing Morsy’s removal as a
coup, which would have triggered the immediate halt of military aid.
But after the Rab’a killings, the US cancelled planned joint military
exercises with Egypt and announced a review of “further steps that we
may take as necessary with respect to the US-Egyptian relationship.”

In October 2013, the US suspended the delivery of four major weapons
systems to Egypt. In August 2014, it lifted that suspension and
delivered 10 Apache attack helicopters. In March 2015, the
administration lifted all suspensions,
allowing delivery of 12 F-16 fighter jets and up to 125 M1A1 tank kits,
while also announcing plans to tighten restrictions on Egypt’s military
aid buying power.

In August, Secretary of State John Kerry went to
Cairo to lead the first Strategic Dialogue with Egypt since 2009.

European governments – particularly France, Germany, and the United
Kingdom – have embraced al-Sisi’s government. Al-Sisi met President
Francois Hollande in France in November 2014, and France subsequently
sold Egypt 24 Rafale fighter jets and delivered the first 3 on July 21.

In June 2015, al-Sisi met with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on the
same day that the German industrial company Siemens signed an 8 billion
euro deal to supply gas- and wind-power plants to Egypt. The government
of UK Prime Minister David Cameron has also invited al-Sisi to meet.

“The lack of justice for the victims of the Rab’a massacre and other
mass killings is an open wound in Egyptian history,” Stork said.
“Addressing this crime is necessary before Egypt can begin to move
forward.”

Thousands of public sector workers took to the streets on Monday in
protest against the civil service law issued in March, which they say
negatively impacts up to 7 million individuals by decreasing their
income, increasing the managerial powers of administrators and
introducing a host of vaguely worded regulations that could infringe on
basic workers’ rights.

Starting at noon, over 2,000 people — the
vast majority of whom are tax authority employees — gathered at the
Journalists Syndicate in downtown Cairo to protest the law. The
demonstration was originally scheduled to take place in front of the
Cabinet, but the police refused to grant permission for that location.

Although some sources called it one of the largest street protests since
2013, the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported that only “dozens”
showed up for the demonstration — though photos suggest a much higher
number.

Despite the stifling August heat, throngs of angry protesters used
words like “illegitimate” and “depart” as they loudly chanted against
the law. Some of the tax collectors carried banners respectfully calling
on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to amend the law. Others carried
banners denouncing the presidential decree, calling it the “Forced Labor
Law.”

Alongside the tax authority workers’ protest, hundreds of
Public Transport Authority employees announced partial strikes and
slow-downs on Monday at three bus stations around Cairo, including the
Badr, Nasr and Gesr al-Suez stations.

These industrial actions
were largely organized by independent labor unions. Members of
independent unions of tax collectors, customs employees, bus drivers and
Antiquity Ministry workers, among other groups, joined demonstrations
and strike actions alongside representatives from syndicates for
doctors, teachers, engineers and veterinarians.

The state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), however, did not take part.

“While
it has raised some objections with the authorities regarding certain
provisions of the new civil service law, the ETUF has not sided with us
in this struggle,” Sales Tax Authority employee Sameh Mahmoud told Mada
Masr. “The ETUF is largely committed to promoting the administration’s
policies, yet is entirely disconnected from our own demands and rights.”

“We
will continue to escalate our protests if our demands are not met in
terms of amending this poorly formulated and unjust law,” Mahmoud
declared. He said he would join his colleagues in Cairo to gather at the
Journalists Syndicate once again on August 17, as part of a protest
organized by Real Estate Tax Authority employees.

“If the
authorities disregard our demands, or take punitive measures against us
for protesting — as they have threatened to do — then we will surely
escalate our actions even further by launching a strike on August 30.
This work-stoppage is already being planned,” Mahmoud warned.

At
the Journalists Syndicate, Rabeah Mohamed, a General Tax Authority
employee from Monufiya, told Mada that “our chief grievances are that
this law is being used to limit our bonuses and diminish income. Our
income used to increase month by month, year by year. Now our salaries
are stagnating, and our families will be the ones most directly impacted
by this law.”

Mohamed, along with five of his coworkers from
Monufiya, claimed their July and August salaries stayed flat due to the
newly imposed caps on workers’ bonuses.

“We didn’t expect that
this law would diminish our income, but when we did realize this bitter
truth last month, we just couldn’t remain silent. We cannot let the
government erode our rights,” Mohamed asserted.

“We have other
objections, including the sweeping powers granted to administrators,” he
continued.

“Our administrators and managers are now empowered to
determine the extent of each employee’s pay raises or pay cuts,
promotions or dismissals. These wide-ranging powers allow those in
managerial positions to appoint employees of their choice, such as from
among their family members and friends, and to fire anybody who
disagrees with them.”

However, while speaking at a press conference on Monday,
Planning Minister Ashraf al-Araby dismissed claims of favoritism,
preferential treatment or nepotism associated with the civil service
law. The minister claimed that the legislation was “part of the general
administrative reform plan agreed upon by the government.”

Seeking
to allay the workers' concerns, Araby added that the provisions of
“this law would not be enforced upon public school teachers, doctors at
public hospitals or employees of the Public Transport Authority.”

And,
Araby promised, in the near future further executive decrees regulating
the provisions of the law would be open to public discussion and the
participation of civil society groups.
But Ikram Mustafa, an employee of the General Tax Authority in Alexandria, didn’t buy Araby’s explanation.

“If
there was a public budget crisis affecting the state, then we would
happily sacrifice some of our wages for the good of the nation,” Mustafa
argued. “However, what we are faced with is decreased income for us
employees, and greater income for those in managerial positions.”

Furthermore,
warned Tarek Murad of the Sales Tax Authority in Alexandria, “tax
collectors are much like judges. If they receive insufficient salaries,
then they grow prone to accepting bribes and corruption.”

But “the
biggest difference between us tax collectors and the judges is that
judges get paid above the maximum wage [LE42,000 per month], whereas the
starting salaries for us tax collectors are just above the minimum wage
[LE 1,200 per month],” Murad clarified.

In March, the State Council Court issued a ruling
exempting judges and prosecutors from the national maximum wage. Murad
claimed that the average income for sales tax collectors, on the other
hand, is between LE2,000 to LE3,000 per month.

“If laws like the
civil service law are to be applied, then they should be applied to all
civil servants and public sector workers. However, this is not the
case,” he concluded.

Sisi also issued another presidential decree on May 7 that exempted the presidency and the Cabinet
from two articles in the law which stipulate that state officials must
publicly announce all the candidates applying for high-ranking
governmental posts and contracts.

Many workers attending Monday’s
protest at the Journalists Syndicate agreed that neither Sisi nor his
administration adequately consulted with labor unions or professional
syndicates prior to issuing the legislation.

“We were all
surprised by the issuing of such a detailed and comprehensive law,” said
Mahmoud. At 72 articles long, this piece of legislation is more of a
comprehensive booklet than the average presidential decree.

And
“we were even more surprised that trade unions were kept out of this
law’s drafting process,” Mahmoud continued. “We hope that President Sisi
will rescind this law. We also hope that an elected parliament can
discuss and draft new proposals for a more just civil service law
inclusively with workers, employees and unions across Egypt.”

A string of fatal factory fires and
industrial accidents has claimed the lives of numerous workers in and
around Cairo over the past few weeks.

The latest incident took
place on Sunday, when a deadly fire in 6thof October City claimed the
lives of three workers and injured several others at a paint factory.

On
Saturday, a factory in Shubra al-Kheima that manufactures starch and
glucose burned down, claiming the lives of five workers and injuring
another seven.

Prosecutors and forensic teams in Giza and Qalyubia
governorates began investigating the sites and causes of these fatal
fires on Sunday.

Several local media outlets reported that
fire-fighters were unable to rescue three workers trapped inside an
inner chamber within the 6th of October City factory, although they did
save one.

The privately owned Youm7 news portal reported that the bodies of the deceased workers were later recovered from the site.

The cause of the fire at the privately owned paint factory is unknown.

Several
workers on site at the starch and glucose factory (also privately
owned) in Shubra al-Kheima, said the fire was the result of a gas leak
and subsequent boiler explosion.

The state-owned Al-Ahram
newspaper reported that five workers died from burns and
smoke-inhalation. Another seven, including two low-ranking policemen at
the scene of the accident, were reportedly hospitalized.

These
fatal industrial accidents come just days after a deadly fire at a
furniture factory in Cairo’s Obour City, which claimed the lives of 26
workers, and injured over 20 others. Investigations into this fire
revealed that this (privately-owned) furniture factory was unlicensed, due to its insufficient safety measures.

In September 2014, a factory collapse in Obour City claimed the lives of five workers and injured more than 30 others.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi omitted to
mention the 10 workers who died and 145 who were injured while working
on the New Suez Canal project from August 2014 to August 2015.

During
the canal's inauguration speech on Thursday, Sisi and the Chief of the
Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Mohab Mamish, paid tribute to those who died
as “Egypt’s martyrs” in terrorist acts, including members of the police
and Armed Forces, but didn't mention those who died during construction
of the new passageway.

They glossed over the hazardous and
precarious working conditions under which thousands labored for a year
in order to build a 72 kilometer-long expansion of the existing Suez
Canal.

Using patriotic rhetoric, Sisi and Mamish praised the
timely efforts of all those who were involved in the mega project,
including around 44,000 workers, military engineers, machinists,
technicians, and Suez Canal employees.

Spokesperson for the Health
Ministry Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, told Mada Masr that of the 10 workers,
including one medical doctor, who died while working on the new project,
five are reported to have died of natural causes, such as pre-existing
medical conditions and heart attacks, while the five others are reported
to have died in industrial accidents on site.

145 others were
injured and required medical attention. The Health Ministry’s crews
reported treating 103 workers who collapsed due to sunstroke. Another 41
were treated for venomous scorpion stings and one worker received
medical attention after being bitten by a wild dog.

While the
exact compensations paid per death or injury have not been disclosed,
the ministry points out that comprehensive health insurance was provided
for all those working on the New Suez Canal.

Abdel Ghaffar added, that
from its very beginning, dozens of field hospitals and mobile medical
units covered the entire project site, providing round the clock service
for those working on and around it.

Seoud Omar, an independent
union organizer and SCA employee in Suez City, commented that thousands
of the SCA’s fulltime employees received “decent salaries and bonuses in
light of this new project, with some professions and ranks being
particularly well paid — to the tune of several thousand pounds per
month.”

However, Omar continued, “The situation for thousands of
other part-time workers and precarious laborers was less rewarding, in
terms of their hourly pay rates, lengthy work schedules and very
strenuous working conditions.”

Omar commented that several private
contractors, who recruited the workers, in coordination with SCA,
imposed harsh working and living conditions on the workers.

In his
speech for the inauguration of the New Suez Canal, Mamish acknowledged
the hard labor associated with the project. He stated that, from the
very start of the project, no holidays were taken and 24-hour daily work
shifts continued non-stop. Yet the SCA chief did not delve into the
details of everyday working conditions.

Abdel Aziz Abdel Gawwad, a
SCA employee and dredger-operator from Ismailia, who worked on the New
Suez Canal, indicates that he and all his fellow workers were paid above
the national minimum wage (amounting to at least LE1,200 per month)
while working on the project.

However, working hours could extend from 10 to 12 hours per day, while conditions were often back-breaking.

Abdel
Gawwad indicated that part-time workers employed by private contractors
had even harder working conditions, often sleeping in the open, with
little access to running water or restrooms.

It is reported that
in many cases, such temporary and non-unionized workers, who were
typically involved in the dry-digging phase of the project, often had to
pay for their own food and drinking water purchased from local vendors,
at above-market prices.

These workers often complained of
exposure to intense heat during the day and cold at night, while also
being exposed to snakes, scorpions and wild dogs, along with mosquitoes
and other insects. It is not known if all these workers received full
remuneration, or adequate compensation for their labor.

Another
point not mentioned by Sisi or Mamish during their inaugural speeches,
is that several hundred locals were denied work on the New Suez Canal
project for unspecified “security reasons.”

This exclusionary policy is
reportedly linked to the forced relocation of some 2,000 local
residents, who were displaced by the canal's construction since September 2014.

Sisi
claimed that this is just one of many national projects to be
undertaken in the future, particularly along the Suez Canal. The
government asserts that one million jobs will be created in light of the
planned development in the canal zone.

Sisi also stated that the state’s public works project aims to realize the goal of “social justice and human dignity.”

However, the validity of his claims, whether in terms of job creation, social justice or human dignity, have yet to be assessed.

Sisi
concluded his speech on Thursday by mentioning that historically, the
Suez Canal “has left its fingerprints on the geography of world and on
the map of humanity.”

Also unacknowledged by Sisi were the tens of
thousands of locals pushed into forced labor, along with hired hands,
who died between 1859–1869 to construct the 160 km-long Suez Canal.

While the SCA’s official website does acknowledge
the exploitation of thousands of workers associated with the building
of the original canal, it doesn't mention the number of those who died
in its construction, estimated to be around 120,000.

Two
hundred and fifty eight of the documented violations revolved around
preventing journalists from doing their jobs, while other violations
included verbal and physical assault, detention, arrests and
imprisonment, as well as damaging and confiscating equipment, the
banning press reports, and lawsuits against journalists.

The
report revealed that the Interior Ministry was the main violator of
press freedoms in Sisi’s first year of presidency, with 56 percent of
the violations committed by police forces. Civilians came second with 32
percent of the violations, while 10 percent of the violations were
committed by “government bodies.”

“It is notable that police
forces were not the only ones violating journalists’ rights, but that
many citizens also verbally and physically assaulted journalists and
damaged their equipment. This is a direct result of the state’s
discourse inciting people against journalists,” the report explained.

The
report also documented the cases of nine detained journalists, as well
as five journalists facing trial who have been released pending
investigations.

A similar report
by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released
in June revealed that at least 18 journalists are currently incarcerated
in Egyptian jails – the highest number of media professionals to be
detained since the organization started tracking arrests in the country
in 1990.

“The threat of imprisonment in Egypt is part of an
atmosphere in which authorities pressure media outlets to censor
critical voices and issue gag orders on sensitive topics,” CPJ warned.

During
his meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday, Egyptian
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry denied that journalists have been
arrested while doing their jobs, adding that these journalists face
trials for their alleged involvement in violence and membership in
terrorist organizations.

The Intercept

August 3, 2015

Glenn Greenwald

The Egyptian regime run
by the despotic General Abdelfattah al-Sisi is one of the world’s most
brutal and repressive. Last year, Human Rights Watch documented that that
Egyptian “security forces have carried out mass arrests and torture
that harken back to the darkest days of former President Hosni Mubarak’s
rule.”

Just two months ago, the group warned
that the abuses have “escalated,” and that Sisi, “governing by decree
in the absence of an elected parliament, ha[s] provided near total
impunity for security force abuses and issued a raft of laws that
severely curtailed civil and political rights, effectively erasing the
human rights gains of the 2011 uprising that ousted the longtime ruler
Hosni Mubarak.”

Despite that repression — or, more accurately, because of it — the
Obama administration has lavished the regime with aid, money and
weapons, just as the U.S. government did for decades in order to prop up
Hosni Mubarak. When Sisi took power in a coup, not only did the U.S.
government support him but it praised him for restoring “democracy.”

Since then, the U.S. has repeatedly sent arms and money to the regime as
its abuses became more severe. As the New York Timesdelicately put it yesterday,
“American officials . . . signaled that they would not let their
concerns with human rights stand in the way of increased security
cooperation with Egypt.”
None of that is new: A staple of U.S. foreign policy has long been to
support heinous regimes as long as they carry out U.S. dictates, all in
order to keep domestic populations in check and prevent their views and
beliefs (which are often averse to the U.S.) from having any effect on
the actions of their own government.

Just today, the American and
Egyptian governments jointly issued a lengthy statement on
a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Egyptian Foreign
Minister Sameh Shoukry, which it said was “based on the shared belief
that it is necessary to deepen the Egypt-U.S. bilateral relationship to
advance our shared interest after almost four decades of close
partnership and cooperation.”

While Kerry suggested in the meeting that
severe repression may not be strategically shrewd, the official
statement did not even reference, let alone condemn, the regime’s human
rights abuses: credit for not pretending to care, I suppose.

[The U.S. media pretended to be on the side of Tahir Square democracy
protesters despite decades of support from the American government for
Mubarak. Recall that in 2009 Hillary Clinton pronounced: “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family.”

A WikiLeaks cable,
anticipating the first meeting between Obama and Mubarak in 2009,
emphasized that “the Administration wants to restore the sense of warmth
that has traditionally characterized the U.S.-Egyptian partnership” and
that “the Egyptians want the visit to demonstrate that Egypt remains
America’s ‘indispensible [sic] Arab ally.’” The cable noted
that “[intelligence] Chief Omar Soliman and Interior Minister al-Adly
keep the domestic beasts at bay, and Mubarak is not one to lose sleep
over their tactics.”]

The Leader of the Free World’s long and clear history of lavishing the world’s most repressive regimes with money and weapons is
usually carried out with a bit of stealth, so that its inspiring,
self-flattering rhetoric about Supporting Freedom and Democracy — used
to justify invasions and other forms of imperial domination — will be
credible to its domestic media and population (even if to nobody else in
the world). But this week, the U.S. government not only proudly touted
its sending of weapons to the Cairo regime, but published a video celebrating it.